Thursday, August 17, 2017

I will be the first to say I'm not big on spending a lot of money on makeup, especially if it's something new I'm trying. Now, will that come back and bite me in the rear when I'm older? I'm not sure... but my face isn't too sensitive right now and none of these products or bands have bothered me.

I love trying new products out and seeing which works best - here is a list of the best "cheap" makeup products I'm currently using!

1. Maybelline Master Contour Set $8.99 This contour set is perfect for a quick contour that's not too complicated. The shades work perfectly with my skin tone and provide a flawless, blended contour. For Christmas last year, my mom got me this contour kit and while I loved it, it broke my face out so for a 3rd of the price and no breakouts, I love this Maybelline set.

2. e.l.f. HD Lifting Concealer $3.00 I love using this concealer to hide small blemishes or the occasional pimple that pops up. It hides well and lasts all day.

3. e.l.f. Makeup Mist and Set $2.99 I'm not sure how effective this is - I don't seem to notice a difference if I use it or not but it is refreshing and feels great on my face. I used it after my flights the last few months and it left me feeling refreshed and hydrated.

4. Maybelline Super Stay Matte Lip $7.99 Y'all, I love this stuff! If you follow me on Instagram or Snapchat, you might have seen my review and testing of this lipstick last Friday. I wore it for a full 12 hours on Friday and it stayed on so well - I didn't have to reapply and it kept my lips hydrated all day. I have the shades #10 Dreamer and #15 Lover. I used #15 on Friday and noticed the color got darker as the day went on and thanks to Kelsey it came right off with some coconut oil.

5. e.l.f. Triple Tip Waterproof Eyeliner Pen $2.99 I'm not sure why I was only able to find a triple tip pen but mine is a single tip pen (like in the picture). I used my sister's Stila eyeliner pen a few weeks ago but at $22/pen I didn't want to splurge on it. I found this e.l.f. one at Target and felt as if it is no different. It goes on smooth and lasts all day!

6. e.l.f. Eyebrow Kit $2.99 With the eyebrow trend becoming big, I figured I should look into something to give me just a little more fill. I really like this kit because it fills in the gaps, doesn't look like I drew them on and doesn't leave a residue on my eyebrows (I can't stand that!).

8. e.l.f. Duo Concealer/Highlighter $3.00 I've been using this product for a while now and really like it! I hate spending a ton on under eye concealer because I feel like I go through it so quickly. This does a great job of covering up my dark circles (for the most part ;))

What did y'all think of this list? What's your favorite "cheap" makeup product that works really well?

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

I'm sure y'all saw by now, but this past weekend I donated my hair

A little back store - this has been something I've wanted to do for a while. Usually, I have short hair - I think this is the 3rd time in my life I've had long hair. The last time my hair was this long was for our wedding. After the wedding, I cut it and then cut it even shorter a few months later. It wasn't until afterwards that I realized I probably could've donated it if I cut it all at once instead which made me sad.

A few months ago, I noticed my hair was getting fairly long so I started doing some research into what it would take to donate my hair. Originally, I wanted to donate to a children's foundation like Locks of Love but saw some things about that company that didn't sit quite right. I heard good things about Pantene Beautiful Lengths and they also only required 8" when everyone else required 10" which really made my ears perk up ;)

I never thought I'd be attached to my hair because since I don't ever color it, I change it up with different hair cuts but with the thought of cutting it all off, I was suddenly attached. It was really a love hate relationship with my long hair but in the end, making the cut won out. I was definitely ready for lighter, shorter hair!

I went to my regular salon and they were so excited to help me do this! It was the craziest feeling when my hair dresser cut my pony tail off and handed it to me... it felt so weird!! Since my hair is so thick, we ran out of time for her to straighten my hair so I ran home, showered off and straightened it to check out my new do!

I'm so happy with how it turned out!! It's definitely shorter in the back (I've never been brave enough to go that short) but I'm so glad the donation "made" me go that short. I shipped out my hair on Tuesday and hopefully will get confirmation they received my pony tail in a few weeks :)

I'm so thankful I was in a position to donate my hair and help give someone a wig. It was a fun process that was surprisingly really easy! Now I've got to get used to using less shampoo and I can stop having nightmares that I cut my hair and didn't donate it ;) Also, thank you for all the sweet words I received after cutting my hair - everyone has been so kind and it's been so appreciated!

Monday, August 14, 2017

This past weekend was so fantastic - with so many things to look forward to, we really enjoyed it! Friday, I had a big day at work with a breakfast and lunch meeting (I was so full all day) and came home to Stephen and his bestie. Neither of them had to work that day so they were enjoying some guy time. I watched an episode of Southern Charm and then Stephen surprised me with some new, beastly nerf guns. That lead to a fun nerf gun war - we're still missing one ball lol. Afterwards, I got to work on an embroidery order for my Aunt then we relaxed and watched Boss Baby. We thought the movie was kind of weird but portrayed siblings well - definitely pulled at my heart strings some.

Saturday morning, I was up early (bleh) so I watched another episode of Southern Charm, worked on the blog then got ready for my hair appointment! I've been so excited to get my hair cut - I'll touch more on this on Wednesday but I chopped 9" off and finally have short hair again.

After lunch, I took a 2 hour nap #allthepraisehands and we headed off to Disney! We have seasonal passes so they're blocked out all summer - this was the first time they've been valid in a few months. The weather was beautiful at our house but then once we got to Disney, it was gross and rainy the whole evening. Thankfully, we had our fun Mickey ponchos that my SIL got us for Christmas 6 years ago.

And of course the day I cut my hair, it rains and I didn't bring a hat...

The ride stopped in the perfect spot so we were able to max out half way through the ride ;)

The Dole Whip with vanilla ice cream is our favorite and for a while, they only offered pineapple ice cream which we didn't like as much. We were so excited when we went to get one and they had vanilla ice cream again!! It's the small things...

While we were walking at night, Stephen did this weird jump thing thinking he stepped on a rat (lol!!) but the bottom of his shoe fell off half way. We went to a store and asked for a rubber band to keep his shoe together but instead, the employees went out and got him a pair of nice flip flops for free. They knew this was a safety issue and didn't want him to get hurt in the park. This is why I love Disney, they saw a safety problem and went out of the way to fix it. Even though I'm sure this was for liability issues, they took care of it on their own dime and were so nice about it!

We finished up the night watching the fireworks from behind the castle which was super cool! Sunday, we went to church, Publix and did some work around the house before heading back to Orlando to meet Stephen's family for dinner. It was good to see everyone and a nice way to end the weekend.

I hope everyone else had a great weekend as well! Linking up with Biana

Friday, August 11, 2017

We made it to another Friday!! This week was pretty busy - which included a 2 hr dr visit to have my ear flushed out.. joy. Thankfully, all is well and I'm super pumped for this weekend - relaxing evening tonight, hair cut tomorrow and then Disney tomorrow night!

One
The official pictures from the White Party we went to last weekend came out this week and I had to share them. We didn't get too many while we were there on my phone because it was so dark outside.

With the co-founder of Orlando City Soccer

Two
On my flights to and from Atlanta I watched The Zookeeper's Wife and I was surprised at how good the movie was! It was even more emotional knowing this was a true story - it was so amazing and they had so much courage!

Stephen watched Wonder Woman while I was gone and loved it so much, he had me watch it when I got home. Not going to lie, I thought this movie was going to push the female agenda so I had no interest in watching it but it wasn't bad!

Three
Recently, Jessi shared a recipe for Asian Chicken Rice Bowls and since it looked so good and had minimal effort, I made it and it was delicious! Granted, I forgot to buy hoisin sauce but that'll just make it even better! Definitely a great weekday meal.

Four
I believe it's been a while since I've showed y'all some new designs I've been using for PPE hats. I've been finding such fun designs and loving testing them out!

Five
Super random but I recently got a new phone and I'm loving it. We're a Samsung family so I upgraded to the Galaxy S8 and love it. What I wanted to share is my phone case - it was so difficult to find a cute phone case for this phone but I love what I ended up with! I chose this pink silicone case which is very similar to the iPhone silicone cases. My sister has one for her iPhone and I loved it so I was really excited that Samsung got on the bandwagon and made one for their phones. Anyways, if you have a Samsung, I'd really recommend these comfy, cute and non-bulky cases (plus they're cheap on Amazon!)

Thursday, August 10, 2017

I'm back to wrap up our HHI vacation - if you'd like to catch up on the first part of our trip, you can see it here. Picking up on Wednesday, it was Stephen and I's 4th anniversary and my sister was leaving to head back home. We slept in, slowly got ready and then everyone headed out to Crazy Crab for lunch before my parents and sister headed out to the outlet malls and then to the airport.

We found a porch swing and had to get a picture on it

After we got too hot, we headed to the pool while our friends went shark fishing. Once we were done at the pool, we got ready and headed to dinner at a new, trendy place we found. We tried the Lucky Rooster and it was so delicious and had a really cool atmosphere. After dinner, we stopped by South Beach to shop and walk around then we met my parents back at the house and went on a bike ride around the golf course.

Thursday was a pretty low key day. We found an amazing new breakfast spot (I want some of these pancakes SO bad right now) and then went on a bike ride to the Baynard Ruins. Stephen and I were super lazy the rest of the day - we relaxed and went to the pool. That evening, we played some croquet with my parents, got ice cream from Harbour Town and then went out to the beach to enjoy the last of the daylight.

On our last full day, we woke up early and headed out to the beach. We had a full day at the beach then went to dinner with my parents' friends before enjoying one last evening on the beach. We were so sad to leave and didn't want to leave the beach that evening.

And that's a wrap on our vacation for 2017! We spent most of the time relaxing and spending time in the sun. We got some great tans (mine is almost gone :() and were well rested and ready to conquer the rest of our busy month.